Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Raw and SmackDown | Review

RAW Review - LIVE from Lafayette, Louisiana.

Triple H opened the show talking about Becky interfering at the Elimination Chamber event, he thought it was pretty cool, I'm not surprised by that comment considering Triple H himself used to interfere in matches where he didn't need to. 
He mentioned DX were being inducted in the Hall of Fame (aka the WWE website) 
We know that he is in charge of running NXT. so it was a matter of time till superstars from that brand were being called down to the main roster. 

They were Ricochet, Aleister Black, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. Four of the best on the NXT roster, I hope the WWE writers are creative with there future stories. I'm just going to skip through the next match: Braun Strowman v Baron Corbin in a tables match. (Seriously, who cares?) 

Following that match Paul Heyman walked out and cut a standard promo about Brock etc, this match vs Seth Rollins is a long way away from taking place, so I didn't pay attention to what was said. I guess Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush aren't broken up at all but they lost to the debuting Ricochet and Finn Balor, who make a excellent tag team, I want to see them fight for the intercontinental championship. They would bring the house down. 

Drew McIntyre defeated Dean Ambrose with the Claymore kick, nothing else to say about that, Aleister Black didn't walk with Elias, he won his match instead. Sasha and Bayley look like they will defend the tag titles at Fastlane in a few weeks time. 

Am I forgetting somethings? Yeah, you could say that, the NXT guys continued to impress as Gargano and Ciampo took the win against tag champs, the Revival. The crowd were so quiet in Lafayette, that was bad to see. The atmosphere made the matches seem so average. 

Your main event was Ronda Rousey putting her RAW women's championship on the line against Ruby Riott, this was a much more competitive match between the two than the one on Sunday. Which was won by Ronda Rousey via a impressive roll through into an Armbar to end the show. 

Lets talk about SmackDown. LIVE from New Orleans. 

Shane o'Mac followed in his brother in laws footsteps by opening the show, introducing the same NXT talent that was showcased on RAW. Miz interrupted him and admitted he used Shane and then went on to talk about the past leading up to this segment. 
The Usos were next out and the rematch for Fastlane was made. The breakup of the Shane and Miz will 100% happen at that event.

Aleister Black defeated Andrade in a match that continued there rivalry from the NXT days. They put on a very good, fast paced match. These two can easily headline Wrestlemania one day. 

Up next was: The Bar vs. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa.
SmackDown was raising the bar (no pun intended) with the matches here tonight, Gargano and Ciampa picked up the win after a decent tag team match, if it was at a  pay-per-view this would get more time. 

Asuka was finally back on TV, later defeated by Mandy Rose in a "shock" win. That will probably get the victor a title match at Fastlane or at Wrestlemania in her hometown. 
Hey look! Sanity were finally back on tv, albeit in singles competition. They didn't even get an entrance on this episode, probably due to time constraints. Ricochet defeated Eric Young via the 630 splash. 

In the main event: Kofi Kingston, Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles defeated Samoa Joe, Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan after Kingston pinned Bryan after hitting Trouble in Paradise. Shane announced that it will be Daniel Bryan defending the WWE championship at Fastlane as SmackDown went off the air.

That wraps up the RAW and SmackDown reviews. I'll be back in a couple of weeks to predict the winners for Fastlane. Thanks for reading.